The present invention concerns a portable tele medicine device for use in preliminary diagnostic procedures and treatments.
The normal procedure in the case of serious illnesses is to transport the patient to a hospital for diagnosis and treatment of the illness. However, it has proved to be advantageous to arrange for the nursing or ambulance staff to carry out the diagnosis and to start the treatment already at the place of patient pick-up. Such an arrangement likewise makes it possible to establish at an early stage whether a particular specialist competence and special equipment or the like are required, whereafter the patient may be transported straight to the place where such competence, equipment etcetera are available.
Such early diagnosis and treatment would be considerably facilitated, were the nursing staff given a possibility to carry with them a portable telemedicine device adapted to register signals from ECG and VCG units and similar sensing equipment. A portable unit of this kind, which may be docked and thus be connected to a stationary communications network (LAN), which allows connection thereto of external measurement equipment, and which comprises a display device for visualisation of the measurement results, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,604.
However, this prior-art device is merely a passive unit and it is designed for reception and visualisation only of signals from the measurement equipment. It cannot be used to establish active contact with and an exchange of information between the patient-attending staff and other individuals, a possibility which could be helpful in the diagnosis procedure as well as for the implementation of correct treatment measures. This is true particularly in the case of the above portable unit when used un-docked, in which case there is no communication with other equipment.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,047 describes a system according to which selected data on the patient is collected automatically, whereupon said data are forwarded via a stationary telecommunication network, such as a cable television network, to a center where the diagnosis, monitoring or similar operations may be performed. The referred to equipment is not, however, portable and in addition it comprises a plurality of independent components, and consequently this equipment is not adapted for ambulatory use and positioning onboard e.g. an ambulance. Nor is it adapted for active exchange of information between the nursing staff by the patient""s side and the personnel at the central unit.
In addition, there is a need for message exchanges between the nursing staff by the patient""s side and the personnel at the central unit as well as for possibilities of filling in certain types of pre-defined forms, such as patient case record files, already in the initial stage by the patient""s side. These needs are not met in the prior-art devices.
In addition, it would be desirable, were it possible to enter data manually and preferably by one hand only, in a convenient, rapid and simple manner. It would likewise be desirable, were it possible to construct the entry means sufficiently small not to make the portable equipment unnecessarily voluminous and unmanageable.
The object of the present invention thus is to provide a portable telemedicine device which completely or at least partly eliminates the problems encountered in connection with the prior-art technology.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.